Don't Say That.

Dance

Bella just wrapped up her third and final week at her summer dance camp.  She had a BLAST.  To the point that she's like crushed that it's over.  I think she would go seven days a week if she could.  She comes home at night and has me put the videos on the tv so that she can dance with them.  I think it's safe to say she truly loves dancing.  Anyway, here are two dances from the final week (each week they performed four new dances for us).  The first one is lyrical, which is something she's not done before.  She loved it, it was her favorite of the entire camp, which is kind of cool, because it's not a fast paced jazzy piece.  And the second song, well it's ABBA.  That alone merits sharing it, LOL.  I've found "Dancing Queen" to be a song that once stuck in your head, is terribly hard to dispose of.  You'll thank me for that no doubt.  :)

Still here...

Nope, haven't fallen off the face of the earth. :)  Been busy working, being sick, designing our new website, going on vacation, getting home from vacation, getting ready to leave again on vacation, watching Bella dance and turning yet another year older.  Good times.  Well, maybe not so much on the "older" part.   

I think I'm going to start doing more of my blogging on my Sentimental Silver blog.  I'd like to make it more active, yet there are only so many things one can say about jewelry, so I am going to start posting more of our day to day stuff over there and see how that goes.   So if you feel like it, give me a visit over there... :)

Getting Caught Up

After a very relaxed week where I pretty much ignored most of my work and just played stay at home mom (it was quite nice) today is back to business around here.  Bella started her summer dance intensive this morning, so I'll be running my own one person sweat shop to catch up on all work I've set aside.  Good times!

We had an interesting weekend. Saturday was so laid back - it was fabulous.  Just a relaxed family with minimal home improvement projects and nowhere to go, no clock to punch - nice.  Yesterday I took Bella for a playdate with our friends up in Cave Creek.  From the beginning she was having a lot of problems with sharing.  She was swimming with her friend (without her floaties I might add - yippie!) and they have TWO identical versions of every pool toy, raft, kickboard, and so on.  Yet Bella, despite a long talk about it on the way up there, had to have a fit over every item, because to her she could find a difference in them, and clearly one swimming Ariel doll was better then it's twin. 

We went in for lunch (at which point she complained about not getting the princess bowl, she didn't want the pony bowl) then complained about the food (which was ALL stuff she really liked, just no bread with it - her friend is allergic to gluten - so no bread - another thing we discussed pre-playdate).   She then seemed to be in better spirits, so I thought good, she was just cranky because she was hungry. 

Back to the pool, and back to the problems.  Fighting over EVERYTHING.  So we started the 15 minute countdown to get out.  Well 3 time outs and 15 minutes later, it was time to get out. At which point she decided she was NOT getting out, and started screaming at me - like an animal screaming.  So I went to grab her little defiant self and pull her out of the pool, at which point she resorted to splashing me.  At this point I somehow went into some weird calm state (probably what saved my child's life).  I got her out, and then, just to put the cherry on top, she hauled off and hit me.  So I pretty much packed her up, buckled her into the car, and drove home in silence.  It was by far - without a doubt - the worst behavior I have EVER seen from my daughter.

I called Rick to let him know we'd be home early, and that our daughter would be needing a spanking.  I'm not one to spank, I'm actually quite against it, but clearly she crossed a huge line, and it had to be made VERY clear to her, that she was not the boss, and what she did was NOT okay.   On the drive home I thought up her punishments, and came up with the idea that she's lost all priveledges - tv, playing the wii, wearing her favorite pajama's, eating dessert, anything and everything I could think of taking away that would actually bother her (taking toys away never seems to phase her).  She would also be writing an apology letter to her friend and her friend's mom.

So after a LONG quiet time, she came out and we all sat down and discussed it.  I think she realized that this time it was different.  We explained what she was losing, and how she would have to earn those things back.  We have two little cups of beans, and she has to earn so many of them to get each item back, with her PJ's being the first, and the bar going up from there.  I figure it'll take at least a week to get back everything she's lost, if not longer.  She can both earn and lose those beans - so it's up to her how long this takes.

I don't know if this will impact her as strongly as it needs to.  I was just so blown away by how she behaved.  It was beyond unacceptable, and broke my heart.  To see such disrespect and selfishness in her is just tragic to me.   I know I could be quite a handful as a child, but I don't think I EVER would have dared disrespecting my parents as blatently as she did.

But, I'm trying to find the positive, and the positive is that I now know that we have to get hardcore with her with her boundaries and consequences.  She can't pull this stuff when she gets to kindergarten, so we are going to spend the rest of the summer in Bella Boot Camp I think.   So far she's been very accepting of her punishment, and is not asking for TV, snacks, anything.  She pushed, and we have to push back, and let her know that at the end of the day, no matter what she throws at us, WE are in charge, not her. 

Ugh, I don't know why it has to be so hard sometimes.  I keep telling myself that these strong (and stubborn) qualities could make her a very succesful adult one day, but boy, getting to adulthood will certainly not be an easy path...   

Now it's time to pick her up fron dance camp, and hope that I get a good report on her behvaior.  I have my spies there, and they are certainly ones who will be honest about it...      

A little video

My friend Sandi was shooting video at the recital rehersal while I was shooting photos, so I thought I'd "borrow" her videos to share.  :)   Our girls were in dance together last year, and while unfortunately they were not in the same class this year, all three of the "Broadway Babies" classes performed together, so they were able to share the stage for their recital.

The Wizard of Oz (Bella's in the center "house" and is the first one out)

The wicked witch is dead part is her FAVORITE - as I think it clearly is for lots of the girls. :)

And Don't Go Hollywood On Us - she's out in front of that middle house, and she's all the way over on the left.

Hopefully Rick can get our video uploaded from the recital and then I can put her other two dances up.

And one more video... last year's recital.  Oh the pink cotton candy tutu cuteness.  They all seem so much littler.  Bella's the last one to come out, and you can see her swing her arms around to try and get all the other girls to make their circle in the beginning.  LOL, always trying to run show...

I love how on the video you can see their teacher leading them from the side of the stage.  They were all so little, yet they did great.  A lot less looking to the side of the stage for direction this year.  Ugh, I wish she would stop growing, just for a little while, it's just happening way too fast all the sudden. 

Long weekend done...

Boy, this weekend seemed about a week long.   After the recital we went back to work on finishing up the house projects - we are thisclose to being done, we still need to paint the dining room and put on the rest of the new baseboards, then we are done.  For now at least.  Father's Day was nice, a little busy, but that's pretty much how all our holidays are - there's just a lot of family to see and do things with on the holidays.  It's great to have all our family around, but I have to admit there are certainly times where I think we'd really like to just have one place to go or one thing to do and call it good at that, holidays always seem very rushed.   We had lunch out with my Dad and Grandparents, and then dinner here with my mom, step-dad, siblings, niece and nephews.   It was nice to see everyone and Bella had a blast with her cousin Caleb. 

Well a few pics of our living/family room...  they are pretty much done, short of the couch cover I'm waiting for and baseboards.  No more projects this summer.  NONE.  :)  Of course I say that and a pipe will probably bust and take out half the house.  Let's hope not.

 

So Proud

I could not be prouder of Bella then I was today.  She did such a great job at her recital.  By that I don't mean she had perfect technique or knew every ounce of choreography, she just had a great attitude, put up with four quickie costume changes with no complaints, sat and played with her friends between performances, helped other dancers out, and even took a pretty solid head butt from another girl during one song, and kept on going.  She told me "I just had one tear, but I kept going, I wasn't going to cry".  While I've never been one to tell her not to cry, or denyed her when she's in pain, she is however prone to pretty dramatic over reactions, and in dance class something like that would have surely been met with major drama, but she did not carry that reaction on stage.  What's even better is I could tell how proud of herself she was for that.

It truly was a great show.  Changing her costume that many times, quickly, was not easy.  I can not say enough for the other moms from the pre-company class we are in.  Often times Bella would beat me to back to the dressing room after a dance, and EVERY TIME when I got in there, the other moms were already working on her costume change.  They were just amazing.  The group of moms from our Friday class are just fantastic.  I've never had a group in a situation like that fit together as well as we all have.  I will miss them a TON though I know a few of us will keep in touch, and already have playdates lined up, as well as future classes together for our girls.

So now it's time to move on and prep for Father's Day.  We are hosting dinner and swimming tomorrow, and there is much cleaning, laundry and other random prepping to be done, and since we are meeting my Dad out for lunch, we've only got tonight and the morning to do it.

A few pics from curtain call (and yes, I was off crying LOL - though I was not the only one, and my mom & step-dad said they were as well).

      

Final Curtain Call

Tomorrow is Bella's big show, and she's super excited.  I am as well, she loves to dance, and it's like pure joy on her face everytime she has a performance.  It makes me so happy to see her so happy.   

I think that the final curtain call tomorrow will be a sad one, at least for me.  It'll be the last time she's with her dance teacher, the only one she's ever had, the one she started with when she two.  She's danced with her every week for three years, and twice a week the past year.  So tomorrow's final curtain call, will really be the final curtain call to that chapter.  Much like leaving preschool, it's bittersweet.  She's growing up so fast, and moving on from things like this really make that crystal clear.    I gave her dance teacher a photo album today with pictures from the past year, along with one from Bella's first class, and a few from in between, and it literally brought tears to her eyes, which really meant a lot, she's been a really positive influence in Bella's life.   We will miss her. 

   

Recital Time

This week we are busy getting ready for Bella's recital.  Today we had dress rehersal, which went really well.  She's in four dances, so lots of costume changes, but it went very smoothly, which was great.  I love recital time, but it's also another "end" - the end of the dance classes she's taken for so long, and lots of friends she's made in those classes.  She'll continue dancing at the same studio, but with all new teachers and lots of new faces.  It becomes a bit less playtime fun with lots of props, and a bit more serious.   The ballet class she is signed up to start is taught by an actual ballerina.  From Europe.  Who I hear is stern.  Oh well, my kid can use a dose of stern once a week.  :)  Here's a few pics from rehersal - much easier to get photos there then at the show, and you can't tell the difference. 

Floored

It has been a LONG three days in this house.  We finally bit the bullet and ripped the place up to put the new floors in (seeing as how they haven't put themselves in).  The house has been a wreck in the process, we even stirred up enough dust to set off the fire alarm (just think all that dust in my house, good times, I'll be spending some quality time with Endust!). 

I did my best to keep Bella out of the house and out of their way all weekend.  We spent the whole day Saturday with our friends from dance - swimming, lunching and swimming some more.  I SOOOOO have the sunburn to show for it.  I think it's my first real sunburn in like 20 years.  I'm a fair girl, and I avoid the sun at all costs, but Bella had a GREAT time swimming, so hopefully it was worth it.  :)

We went to the coolest restaurant in Cave Creek.  Who know you could put a duck pond in a restaurant?  The girls loved it, and had a great time.  It's somewhere we will definitely visit again.

Bella and her friend *K*.   These girls are two peas in a pod.  One of the best things that has come from dance class this year was this friendship.  They dance together, play together, fight together, have fun together, and their personalities are SO similar.  I really enjoy spending time K's mom, we just all have a great time together.  There's a chance we may get them in school together - to say I'm hoping that comes through would be an understatement.  Bella refers to a lot of kids as her "best friend", and she has her good buddy Kevin who I think she'll always have a special friendship with - they've been buddies since they were toddlers, but she's never really had a girl best friend.  I think K may actually be it.  They literally CRY when they have to leave one another's company.  Two cute girls, double dose of drama.  :)

So while I was keeping Bella away, Rick and his brother Marcus were working non-stop, and they have just kicked ass big time.  The floor looks awesome!  In addition to the floor, they have also repainted all the walls, and replaced all the baseboards.  They just put the last piece of flooring down, and while we still have a lot of furniture to put back in place, more baseboards to install, trim to be put down and more painting to be done, it's coming together and I think we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

A few pictures of the process....

Ugh, why does my camera produce "bubbles" in all the photos with a flash?  Frustrating.

Anyway, my husband (and brother in law) ROCK.  They did an amazing job!!!  :) 

So now we need to put the house back together, and get ready for Bella's dance recital on Saturday and Father's Day on Sunday.  After that we hopefully have a few weeks of nothing.  I think Rick (and Marcus) would REALLY like some time off from the constant home improvement saga.      

Paint, paint and paint again.

We've been working on painting the past two weekends.  Last weekend we did green and white, and the green came out okay (better at some times of day/light then others) but the white was just not right.  We decided to redo it, and wow, the difference a shade of white makes.  Who knew?  Well, probably anyone who's ever painted white before, but anyway.  We also started getting some of our tan color on the walls today and I'm totally in love with the shade.  It's not terribly different then what we have now, but somehow it's just warmer and a very calm color.  LOVE IT.  :)

Last weekend's work - green with "WHITE" (literally the paint was called "WHITE")

Not sure if the difference even shows up on camera (I don't think it does now that I look at it - in the photo the first white actually looks pretty nice), but in person, it's much better now...

And our new tan color - it's a very golden tan, exactly what I wanted.  If you walked in and didn't know we painted, you might not even notice, but I figure if we are going to go through the trouble to paint, we want to notice, even if nobody else does.  This tan will continue through out the family room, dining room and hallway.

I can't wait to get the new floor in!  Well, actually in a way I can, it's going to be a PITA to have the living area torn up while we are in process, but I'm sure it'll be well worth it in the end.  I'm also strangely excited about replacing the baseboards as well, not that the bottom of the line, 32 years worth of paint build up, builder installed baseboards aren't nice or anything...

I'm awaiting the arrival of these drapes to go on that white wall.   

They look like a great match, but it's a funky shade of green so it may not work so well.  If not, we'll probably go with black drapes and this green couch cover below, which is a PERFECT match.    I recieved the swatch in the mail this week, and you'd think it was a paint chip from the color we used, it's that close.

We picked up this rug, but I'm not sure on it.  Unfortunately rugs cost an INSANE amount in my opinion, so I may just have to like this black and white one, because it was very affordable.

Hopefully a few more weekends and we'll be done.  Eh, realistically probably a month or two. 

Yesterday I attended/co-hosted a baby shower for a friend.  It was okay, but I kind of felt like I was just working an event.  I think sometimes friendships evolve in a way in that they are more based on a sense of obligation then anything else.  I'm finding myself in that situation, and it makes me sad.  On the other hand though, friendships have to be give and take, mutually beneficial, and while at times, the scales will certainly tip heavily in one direction, if they never seem to regain balance, is it a friendship, or are you just a resource to be called upon?   

A sense of obligation and being a good friend are both very important to me, but those alone can not make a relationship.  I remember on my first day of graduate school, my professor told us that as therapists, we always have to make sure that our cups get refilled, because by profession, we give and give and give, and at some point your cup is empty, and you will have nothing left to give to anyone, including yourself.  While I'm not working as a therapist, I think that principle can apply to all relationships.  It's a hard realization to make, but I think if a relationship really only benefits one party, for an extended period of time (years) maybe it's time to re-evaluate that relationship.  Not easy, but probably necessary.

Anyway - lol - to lighten things up - here are some of the cupcakes Bella and I made for the shower.  We had chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, along with chocolate and vanilla frosting.  YUMMY!

The "before" shot of the cupcakes. :)

Let me tell you - the quickest way to NOT partake in the chocolate fountain, is to the the one who makes up the chocolate.  There is an insane amount of good old vegetable oil with those chocoalte chips.  Trying to mix the two together (which you do prior to putting it in the fountain) certainly turned me off to the melty chocolate.  Everyone else enjoyed, they were none the wiser!